MUSIC REVIEW: 'Twain Cities' welcome Shania by filling Xcel Energy Center
BY ROB HUBBARD
Pioneer Press
If you've attended a concert at an arena in recent years, you couldn't be blamed for wondering where the production values have gone in music. Boomer bands once known for eyepopping spectacle have gone the unplugged route, while the new kids on the rock block too often display aloofness and little showmanship.
But rest assured there's still one star who believes in putting on an elaborate stage show in America's arenas: Shania Twain. The superstar plies a lot more pop-rock nowadays than she does the country that brung her, but the show she offers with her nine-piece band rivals anything such stadium staples as the Rolling Stones or U2 have mustered.
On Tuesday night, before the largest crowd ever assembled in St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center — 20,554 — Twain and troupe delivered an unflaggingly entertaining show bursting with energy and enthusiasm.
Performing on an oval stage in the center of the Xcel's main floor, the group used every inch of the layout to execute the kind of detailed choreography you would expect to find in a Broadway production. Hitting every note in the songs' elaborate arrangements and every predesignated spot on the stage that the production demanded, Twain's musicians almost stole the show out from under her. This was one of the most well-rehearsed shows to hit these parts in some time, with spontaneity at a premium but spectacle to spare.
Twain spent much of the concert's early going walking about on the elevated center stage section in a Minnesota Wild jersey, black parachute pants and wrestling boots, never trying to overstep her limits as a dancer. Among country artists — and it's a matter of debate if Twain still fits within that category — she and her songwriting partner/husband "Mutt" Lange may understand the catharsis that a fist-pumping arena-rock anthem can create better than anyone. And there were hooks aplenty in Tuesday night's show, be they courtesy of electric guitars or the wandering three-person fiddle section.
Borrowing a high-pitched "Wooo!" from Michael Jackson and punctuating every up-tempo number with it, Twain pulled off her role of accessible diva admirably, shaking hands all along the stage's perimeter and bringing children up to sing along with her. And when she started to seem a little too distant and polished, she pulled the ultimate populist move by delivering "The Woman in Me" from halfway up Section 107.
That was one of the ballads that stood out among the evening's highlights, proving that Twain doesn't need all of the bouncy theatrics to move an audience. She's a strong-voiced singer who has the whole arena diva package. Sure, her lyrics are simplistic and uninspiring, but Tuesday's show was a prime example of how the right amount of razzle-dazzle can cover up almost any shortcoming.
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Rob Hubbard can be reached at
rhubbard@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5247.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pione...ent/7128085.htm